Posts Tagged 'Real ID'

Towards the end of Cata ( I can say that now, since we are almost there) with the decrease of activity going on in the servers people were forced to use things like Openraid, throwing around their real Id’s to do things like Raiding , and what we used them for, Rated BG’s because there were never enough people online or interested on your realm in doing what you wanted to so xrealm recruiting became a norm.

In the space of 2 weeks I had added more people to real ID then I had since inception. I liked playing with these people. They are from different realms/have alts, and were also keen to do Rated BG’s, and the desire to do stuff out weighed any misgivings I had about sharing my real name.

I only had one funny moment ” Why won’t you add me to Facebook?” when he couldn’t find me by searching for my real name. But no buildings fell down, I didn’t get any crazy stalkers, and I didn’t add everyone I played with and the list of keen people who love pvping, and want to do Rated BG’s is sitting there waiting for when we all hit 90 and are looking for other able and eager people wanting to throw themselves in as soon as we can.

I removed someone on the list in a bad pug pick up group because we were losing and a whiny rouge wouldn’t stop whining. To the point I got snarky at him and suggested in case he started whining for heals I was letting him know I couldn’t get to him in time. I got kicked after the loss. No reason to keep them if I didn’t want to play with them.

I know a lot of people were hesitant, or even refused to use real ID. Battle tags became of way of adding people without having to share emails, and it even got to the point where because you can see friends your friends a real life friend wanted me to roll an alt with them, but wouldn’t add me to real ID so we could play together because people on their list didn’t want other people to see their names.

I’m not saying there isn’t still a risk in unmasking the Avatar, and the battle tag option is a welcome alteration to real id, but I am feeling a little more comfortable with the idea then I did when it first came out.

I’ll be honest and say only one of them is someone I know in real life as in I used to see somewhat regularly untill they moved interstate. The others are ‘internet friends.’ I have recently have spent more time in-game with all of them then I have my own mother in -RL .

I’m pretty confident at the least, that my 6 aren’t axe wielding maniacs. Me however – well they added me at their own risk – and I don’t own a axe though I do have…..

I went all stalkerish. Yes! I am in your friends list counting your numbers, and of my 6, the numbers of friends they had each ranged from 11 to 1 The average was about 6 friends each. This is a very small sample, and I am sure Blizzard would be tracking these averages because…..

Is 6 friends really worth all the effort they put in, for this x realm / x game communication?

Blizzard want us to connect – stay connected – not leave one game because we can’t play with friends, and I am sure that a lot of people have a lot more than 6 friends, and it’s only been a week. I’m also sure that some are so busy talking to their friends they are Afk in a major city – and miss raid because they are too busy being social and are not playing the game as intended.

But 6 people – what are the averages you’re seeing? More or less? The people I have talked to / commented / read other posts on, are either extremely protective of their privacy, and have one, or none, or are quite happy with the idea of their Wow friends being Real ID friends. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground. I like the middle ground, and besides if they give you their email. They don’t see yours.

The more I think on it – if I can accept the friends request on Facebook of some person from my kinder garden class that I haven’t seen in decades – Omg remember me! Lets be Facebook friends” and you never have any further interaction with them besides maybe throwing a sheep at them. Then is a person that you have spent/spend HOURS with . On vent, in group, in game, in party, in Bg’s, are they really so bad?

I’m not advocating that you pick up random people in pugs – “omg you look so hot. Add me” Or add your entire guild. But We think we know people – but often even the closest and dearest people to our hearts, in our lives surprise us sometimes.

You can delete people as friends. If your friendship circle changes, it’s ok to remove them. Are you in contact with ALL the people you have called friend throughout your life? Ever removed a friend off facebook? You have the same choice with Real ID.

I have a couple more real life peoples out there I could add, but they haven’t asked, I haven’t asked and we really don’t need to with 6 other ways of communicating.

Oh and the last thing I will say about this real ID business. Is you look REALLY silly running round Dalaran with a <busy> next to their names.

Of course when I updated my status to say that we killed Heroic Sin 25 my small list of friends congratulated me.

‹Busy›

You can set your status to away or busy, and when you whisper that person you get notified that they are away or busy, which is particularly annoying when they are the one psting you – and your reply get accompanied by more spam about them being away.

Shiny Shiny

My very first impression of the UI is it feels odd. I mean, my chat is now crome and shiny like in its appearance, and the subtle beeps it makes when random things happen makes me think how much that it doesn’t belong with the rest of my UI. Maybe it’s feel is more at home in Starcraft, but in Wow, this science ficcy type interface, and noise, It’s modernisation makes it feels like it would seem more at home on a touch screen device then a computer screen.

Stranger Danger

I was doing arena with some guildies, and I got a friend invite, and I’m like who is * over vent and one of my arena partners says – “All the guild members had been getting them” Our first fake friend spam. ( or maybe a lost guildy – I’ll never know cause I had nooooo idea who they were, and they didn’t introduce themselves.) *BLOCK* You don’t have to add their email to invite them, you just need to add their name, it’s a lot easier to add randoms. It would be extremely useful for direct marketing.

“Hi Friend – I have some stuff I can sell to you”

I guess it’s still early days, and so still waiting for the long term, but those are my experiences/impressions so far. I would like to see Blizzard add in features that let you reduce the notification spam. Especially since the person is not really ‘offline’ under this system untill they log out of the game. Technically because all your toons are linked – if you are on your character screen – your still there. There is supposed to be this real person focus. I don’t care about your toon going Online/Offline I care about YOU going offline/online.

Michael Grays Ready check: How to make that vital member show up made me think about when the idea of when a committment to people on the interwebs became as important as a committment to people in my real life, and how easily I can be manipulated when it comes to wow commitments. There are some things I don’t say no to that I should.

The main point I got from the article was about getting that vital person to turn up to your raids, and basically applying social pressure, via guilt trips and ego stroking to make them. ” We need you.. stroke The raid can’t go ahead without you ” stroke

In a progression guild environment, if you needed to apply this type of pressure on any of your essential people, then your already in trouble – guilds work because there is an automatic assumption of commitment as per your agreed raiding times, you turn up – you get purples – progression – prestige – what ever the aim. Most non casual guilds have attendance requirements. If you don’t meet them, then you will miss out on things and get replaced.

How to make a raid member show up, is worth a read, but I am going to assume that it’s written partially tongue in cheek. You should not have to manipulate someone into a commitment. In game. In real life.

One point of the article that disturbs me a little in it’s use for exerting social pressure is the part of Michael’s article “Trade some contact information” It’s no longer just posting on a forum saying your late – not available. It’s having your personal email address, Mobile number, Home number made available to people who will try to peer pressure you into being available for what they want you to be. Of course it’s still your choice to share this information.

I can tell you the exact moment when my Wow/Real Life commitment priority switch got confused for the 1st time. I was sitting in a dodgy Irish Pub In Sydney on a weekend drinking beer with friends, and getting anxious that I might be missing out on late night bit of raiding they were trying to squeeze in outside of normal raiding times. Having to be anti social and email from my phone the raid leader telling them, that I would not likely make it home in time, and that I was sorry. Looking at my friend laughing at me when I explained what I was doing.

That was by email, not so bad.

But imagine getting a call from someone. ” The Raid will be called if you don’t turn up” How does that make you feel? Even the coldest of hearts has to be thinking. “If I’m not there – 9 other people have had their time wasted. ”

This is my list of what I consider to be the methods of communicating social/peer pressure with the most affective at the top, based on methods to make it difficult to ignore social pressure ( so yeah if you really want me to do something you better be asking me face to face.)

There are people I have shared personal contact information with, while it can have it’s uses I probably have been somewhat pressured to be available by my ability to be contacted . ( I am not talking about you. Yes I know that’s what your thinking.)

With the implementation of real ID – hiding on an alt will be difficult and I’m undecided as to if I want to use it because of its additional way it makes me contactable.

I know your playing, and you are in… Why are you ignoring me?

I don’t have a secret alt I hide on, but I know some people who do – or only share it with some people.

Like most social media trends it will depend on if my friends use it – and whats it’s used for. So I will wait – am happy to be a sheep rather than a trend setter. I am interested in its potential, and eagerly await the scandals that I am sure will appear in trade channel and forums, and will be interesting to see if it will be used to exert peer pressure/social pressure

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